Explorations of social action and social media

Helping BIG staff become social reporters

Today I’m in Wickford, Essex, reporting at an event organised by the Big Lottery Fund with the local MP Mark Francois and some 130 local organisations who want to know more about how to get Lottery Funding, and also make most effective use of any funds they do receive.

On this occasion I’m helping BIG regional staff do some reporting themselves, led by Catherine Kimberley. It’s a great opportunity to round-off the work John Popham and I have been doing with BIG on this blog. We’ve been exploring how BIG can become more than a funder – and making their events more sociable is one way.

Today’s event was organised because the MP was keen to make sure his constituents had the best possible briefing on funding opportunities, invited BIG chief executive and others to come along and explain how to achieve that.

Catherine and her team are set to record opening speeches, and do some interviews and tweeting during the day. I may experiment with live streaming from my iPad, as well as helping Catherine. I’ll post more here, and BIG will be reporting on their blog.
The twitter hashtag is #wick112, and you can see the twitter stream here.

Sara Betsworth, head of East of England Big Lottery Fund, introduces the event

Mark Francois MP explains why the event was organised – and what he hopes will follow